Conventionally, an image transmitting apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus has been proposed that includes an address confirming function of displaying a specified address to confirm whether the address is correct before transmission to prevent incorrect transmission (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-234458).
Because the people are getting more concerned about the information crisis management in recent years, for example, an image forming apparatus has been proposed that automatically prints a mark such as “CONFIDENTIAL” or “IMPORTANT” in a margin area of the print to indicate that the print is a confidential document to prevent the leak of a confidential document when the confidential document is copied in accordance with an instruction from a user (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-274133).
If a user frequently uses facsimile transmission, the address confirming function may be turned off because it is cumbersome to confirm the addresses with the address confirming function before transmission.
As a result, the user performs the facsimile transmission without confirming whether the specified addresses are correct, and if a confidential document is incorrectly transmitted, the confidential document is leaked to the outside.
If a confidential document is leaked in this way, it is no use automatically setting a mark such as “CONFIDENTIAL” or “IMPORTANT” in a margin area of image data to indicate that the image data (transmission data) is a confidential document and transmitting the image data through the use of the technical means disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-274133 from the aspect of information management.